


He'd probably just laugh

by pulangaraw



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Methos is just so Methos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 03:37:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3513875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pulangaraw/pseuds/pulangaraw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Methos laughs a lot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He'd probably just laugh

Methos laughs a lot. It takes Duncan quite a long time to notice this, what with all the drama and the horrible things happening during the early years of their friendship. But eventually, when things calm down a little and they start spending time together because they want to and not because circumstances have forced them into an unlikely alliance, Duncan learns that Methos likes to laugh.

Duncan supposes the signs were there all along, he just didn’t see them at the time. There are laugh lines around Methos’ eyes, an upward twist to the corners of his mouth, that seem to be a permanent feature. As if five thousand years have somehow managed to carve their humor into his unchanging face after all. 

Methos laughs about the little things. He giggles when Duncan spills his tea, grins when Amanda tries to put the moves on him for the hundredth time. When Methos stubs his toe in the bathroom, he first swears and then chuckles. He smiles at the way the sunlight catches in Duncan’s hair in the early morning hours. 

Methos laughs about the big things too. He snorts at the Y2K hysteria, pronouncing that the Dark Ages hadn’t been that bad anyway. When Joe tries to argue with him about the electric wheel chair they buy him for his 70th birthday, Methos doesn’t argue back, just smiles at him, this big, boyish smile that always disarms everyone. 

One evening, Carl gets upset at how the news portrays the latest president. Methos just mocks him, laughs mercilessly and reminds him of how fleeting a thing a presidency is. Somehow he manages to pull Carl out of his black mood. 

Sometimes, Methos’ laughter hurts like knives cutting into Duncan’s skin and sometimes it feels like a healing balm. Methos can be cruel with his mirth or immeasurably kind. He can sound innocent like a child or jaded like an old man who’s seen too much. There are days when Duncan desperately wants to join in with the laughter and days when it makes him want to cut the old man’s head clean off. 

Duncan sometimes wonders if it was time or personality that have made Methos into the person he is. If the laughter has always been there or if he had learned to find it despite his struggles. 

There are moments, late at night, when they lie curled into each other, sleepy and sated when Duncan wants to ask Methos if he is laughing at the universe or simply laughing at himself. 

He never does ask, though. Somehow he thinks Methos himself wouldn’t know the answer. 

He’d probably just laugh.


End file.
